A fierce encounter broke out between the banned Naxalite TPC and the police in Palamu district of Jharkhand on Friday, officials said. The encounter occurred at Tarhasi police station area of the district. In this encounter, the police have recovered a large amount of Naxalite material. The police are conducting a search operation by cordoning off the entire area.
In the encounter, Palamu police had received information that a squad led by Naxalite commander Shashikant Ganjhu, who has a reward of Rs 10 lakh on his head, had come to carry out some incident in the Tarhasi area. In the light of this information, a search operation was started under the leadership of ASP operation Rakesh Kumar Singh. During the search operation, the Naxalites of TPC started firing on the police. The police also fired in retaliation and a search operation is being conducted in the area.
Palamu SP Rishma Rameshan confirmed the incident and said that there has been an encounter and a search operation is being conducted in the entire area. The police team has recovered many materials in the search operation. The SP said that the entire area has been cordoned off.
In fact, after the arrest of Aakram Ganjhu, the commander Shashikant Ganjhu with a reward of Rs. 10 lakhs on his head is handling the responsibility of TSPC. Shashikant Ganjhu is accused of carrying out dozens of Naxalite incidents in the Palamu area. The police have recovered many Naxalite materials and diaries from the encounter site.
The security forces crackdown against Left Wing Extremist assumes importance as face of continuous anti-Maoist crackdown by Jharkhand Police, Naxalites are continuously losing ground in the state, which has once been the breeding ground of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) in the country. The situation has such a pass that Naxalites are not getting new cadres now. On the other hand, old cadres are also not showing any inclination to keep in touch with the organisation after coming out of jail.
In Jharkhand, there were four places for new recruitment and training of Naxalites. These were Budha Pahad, Parasnath, Bulbul Jungle and Saranda Jungle. Naxalites have been completely driven out from the first three places as their training camps have been destroyed. Naxalites have been driven out from most of the areas where pamphlets were distributed for new recruitment and villagers were threatened with dire consequences if they do not join the organisation.
Last month, eight suspected Maoists, including a top leader of the banned group carrying a reward of ₹1 crore on his head, were killed in an encounter with a joint team of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and the Jharkhand Police in Bokaro district on Monday (April 21, 2025).
